Bones spotted in bog lead police to ‘unique’ find — a teen’s 2,000-year-old remains
When police in Northern Ireland were alerted to bones in a bog, they couldn’t immediately tell if they were investigating a recent death.
An extensive forensic investigation and a post-mortem examination revealed that archaeologists with the police force had actually discovered something much older: 2,000-year-old human remains, according to a Jan. 25 news release from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The Archaeological Unit within the Body Recovery Team discovered the remains in Bellaghy in October.
Initial excavations revealed “a tibia and a humerus, ulna and radius bone relating to the lower left leg and right arm respectively,” police said. As archaeologists dug deeper beneath the bog’s surface, they found more bones including the individual’s lower left arm and a left femur.
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Experts determined that the remains likely belonged to a male between the ages of 13 and 17 years old at the time of his death. His cause of death is unknown, but his skeleton was “well preserved.”
Pieces of skin, fingernails, toenails and possibly a kidney were also found in the bog, police said.
Radiocarbon dating placed the time of death around 500 B.C., according to officials, making the remains between 2,000 and 2,500 years old.
“This is the first time radiocarbon dating has been used on a bog body in Northern Ireland, and the only one to still exist, making this a truly unique archaeological discovery for Northern Ireland,” Nikki Deehan, a detective inspector, said in the police service’s release.
Radar surveys of the site have not shown any indications of more human remains, according to Alastair Ruffell, a geologist and professor at Queen’s University Belfast.
“The remains were discovered at approximately one metre below the current land surface which matches the radiocarbon estimates,” Ruffell said in the release. “In addition, they were amongst a cluster of fossil tree remains suggesting that the body may have died or been buried in a copse or stand of trees, or washed in.”
Bellaghy is a village about 30 miles northwest of Belfast.
This story was originally published January 25, 2024 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Bones spotted in bog lead police to ‘unique’ find — a teen’s 2,000-year-old remains."
